HARTLEPOOL United entertain Macclesfield today knowing the home supporters are expecting goals, goals and more goals.

After two victories - against Carlisle and Boston - Pool sit top of the pile with the only 100 per cent record in the Third Division.

Manager Chris Turner knows he has built, arguably, the best squad of players ever seen at Victoria Park and he realises his side now have to try to fulfil rising expectancy levels around the ground.

But Turner is remaining cautious ahead of the clash with the Silkmen, pointing to the fact that there are still 44 games to go in a hard, nine-month campaign.

"It's a long season and it doesn't matter about whether we have had a good start, it helps but it doesn't matter," he said. "There's no way that Colin (West) and I will get carried away.

"The fans will get dejected when we lose and they will be delighted when we win, but we have to keep our feet firmly on the ground.

"As a manger you can not ask for any more than winning your opening two games, and in those games to score five goals.

"We know we are playing as good a style of football as any other team in the Third Division.

"It doesn't matter if the football we are playing is worthy of a different level, we are in the Third Division and that's the football we have to be playing.

"We want to keep playing the way we are because we have proved over the past seven or eight months we can beat anyone in our division. We have to take the pressure and handle it."

After Tuesday night's comfortable and impressive 2-0 success over League newcomers Boston, goal-hero Gordon Watson revealed he has never played for a club with so much "love in the dressing room".

For that to come from a 31-year-old who has had spells at five other higher league clubs is testament to Turner, assistant West and the rest of his coaching staff.

And the Pool boss, in his fourth full season in charge - three of which have ended in play-off defeats, backed Watson up, but he admits it has not all been plain sailing.

"Over the three years that myself and Colin have been here, we have taken them to a stage where I don't think this club has been before," said Turner, who took over in March 1999, when he guided them clear of relegation to the Conference.

"And that's right through. The team spirit among the players is sometimes so good that we have to keep a lid on it.

"The full squad are a pleasure to coach and to manage and I thoroughly enjoy my job here at Hartlepool.

"They are a great bunch, they work hard and only time will tell what we can achieve.

"You don't create a good team in one game. We battled and scraped our way to the play-offs in the first year.

"The second year we didn't and we did well and finished fourth. Then in the third year, after a bad start, the players who we brought in settled down and we pushed through to the play-offs and we should have gone up.

"There have been players who have fallen by the wayside but the rest have battled for their places and are now pushing hard for a place. This is the best squad that we have had.

"From the bottom of this club to the top it is in great shape, in fact this football club is in the best shape it has ever been.

"We have a good youth team, a good first team and now we are even getting a good back-up team - you can't ask for anymore than that."

Turner faces a selection dilemma this afternoon after the return from injury of left-midfielder Paul Smith, who passed a fitness test on Monday on his injured knee - sustained during pre-season - and has been able to train all week without problem.

But Turner is expected to stick with the side who turned on the style in the second-half against Boston this week.

That means in-form Ritchie Humphreys will continue to fill the void left by Smith on the left, with Darrell Clarke playing alongside Mark Tinkler in the middle and Paul Arnison playing wide right

Read more about Hartlepool here.